Abstract
This chapter is designed to contextualize and advance the conversation among philosophers of education about humor and laughter by focusing on some interesting connections among humor, philosophy and education. I begin my analysis by discussing the nature and purpose of humor in general, while distinguishing it from laughter and amusement. I argue for an eclectic view of humor, one which integrates insights from different theories and avoids the reductionism that has often resulted from trying to create a comprehensive theory of humor. In the next part, I examine some of the historical tensions between traditional education and humor and laughter. I then proceed to lay out some important, though often neglected, similarities and links between humor and philosophy. In the final part of this essay, I attempt to respond to the question: what does a study of humor and laughter bring to philosophy of education?
An earlier version of this essay was published in Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice, Vol. 25, n. 2, (Summer 2012).
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Notes
- 1.
Quoted in Norman Malcom's Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir, (Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 27–28.
- 2.
For a more comprehensive account of these similarities see Morreall’s (2009) book Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor pp. 126–129.
- 3.
See the entry on the “Philosophy of Language,” in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, by Mark Crimmins, downloaded from http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/U017, p. 2.
- 4.
The defensive and depressive stances are not meant to be identified with any particular discourse in philosophy of education such as post-modernism or liberalism. Instead, they represent two fairly common psychological responses to the marginalization of philosophy of education.
- 5.
Quoted from John Morreall’s forthcoming essay entitled “Humor, Philosophy and Education,” slated for a special issue of Educational Philosophy and Theory, (2013).
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Gordon, M. (2014). The Case for a Humorous Philosophy of Education. In: Humor, Laughter and Human Flourishing. SpringerBriefs in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00834-9_1
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